I thought only movie stars divorced their parents

July 26, 2004 | CANTON, Mass. (AP)
A Massachusetts man who murdered his wife six years ago and left their 8-year-old son to find her body has agreed to give up his parental rights, the boy's guardian said Monday.

Daniel Holland had been scheduled to face a closed-door trial Monday in Norfolk County Probate and Family Court on whether his parental rights should be terminated.

Instead, he agreed to a settlement waiving any right to be part of Patrick Holland's life, said Ron Lazisky, of Sandown, N.H., Patrick's permanent legal guardian.

Patrick, 14, has publicized his determination to terminate his father's parental rights, saying Holland forfeited the role of a parent the night he shot Liz Holland eight times in their Quincy, Mass., home. Patrick was sleeping in the next room.

I remember when this happened. I had just moved to New Jersey from MA and was spending many of my weekends in my hometown of Lowell. I would read the Lowell Sun while I was up on the weekends. The family that I visited delivered the paper (I did too before I moved) and their father worked in one of their offices.

I read the story on the front page and all of the parents were talking about it. Now six years older and callously layered by the violence in the news, it was interesting for me to remember this story. Part of me is happy to see that the son is able to take personal action against his father. Such a horrific crimes has horrific consiquences. But the other part of me can't help but remember the Macaulay Culkin divorce of his parents for money. I guess that his story made me believe that divorcing one's parents was only something that movie stars did for money.

But, this boy divorcing his father because of the trama involved from being present at the murder of your mother (by his own father, none the less) is a far more serious matter. To ask the courts to take one's right to a parent is a pain staking action. It is forcing the child to let go of his beginnings. It is also a punishment to those who raised and bared such children. It is a violent end to one of the few things that a felon has left; a family.

I don't really know what my opinion is on children divorcing their parents any more. As a kid, it seemed ideal to not have parents to listen to. In many ways, divorcing one's perents seemed like the movie Home Alone. When the relationship amoung family is strained, it seems like it would be a lot easier to continue your life without the burdon of your family. But in the end of the movie, he needed his family. Even though he was capable of taking care of himself, he needed them for the history and comfort of family.